Reading of the Word of God
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
This is the Gospel of the poor,
liberation for the imprisoned,
sight for the blind,
freedom for the oppressed.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
Luke 12,1-7
Meanwhile the people had gathered in their thousands so that they were treading on one another. And he began to speak, first of all to his disciples. 'Be on your guard against the yeast of the Pharisees -- their hypocrisy. Everything now covered up will be uncovered, and everything now hidden will be made clear. For this reason, whatever you have said in the dark will be heard in the daylight, and what you have whispered in hidden places will be proclaimed from the housetops. 'To you my friends I say: Do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. I will tell you whom to fear: fear him who, after he has killed, has the power to cast into hell. Yes, I tell you, he is the one to fear. Can you not buy five sparrows for two pennies? And yet not one is forgotten in God's sight. Why, every hair on your head has been counted. There is no need to be afraid: you are worth more than many sparrows.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Son of Man came to serve,
whoever wants to be great
should become servant of all.
Alleluia, alleluia, alleluia
The Gospel passage reports that thousands of people flocked and crowded around Jesus, so "that they trampled on one another." They were men and women needing comfort and looking for a better life. Jesus immediately put the surrounding crowd on guard from false shepherds or even more from the hypocrisy of the Pharisees that made their guide insupportable and dangerous. The religiosity of the Pharisees was full of exteriority; it did not engage their hearts and was therefore merciless and with no compassion for the exhausted and tired crowds. It was enough for the Pharisees to simply repeat the principles of the Law in cold and abstract terms. Like a bad yeast, such religiosity contaminates the entire life of people. Yet Jesus said that the moment would come in which all would be brought to light and in which all the emptiness and sadness of those who built up their own existence with a loveless and merciless heart showing only pride and trying to save themselves. The condition of the disciples who hear and follow the true shepherd and master is different. Here Jesus introduces a very important distinction. The body can die but there is an "afterwards" on which the disciple is called upon to reflect. Jesus suggests that the "afterwards" is connected to the "heart", that is to the interior life, the "place' where we encounter Godor and it would be a tragic choicewhere we meet the one who can "cast into hell." There is no scorn for the body in Jesus' words; for indeed how many healings he did! Yet there's no doubt that the kind of care that we give to transforming and converting our hearts is very little in comparison to the care we give to our bodies and our material well-being. At times, we will even sell our soul for the benefit of our external well-being. Jesus reminds us that the Father in heaven takes care of us better than the sparrows and knows every hair on our head. Let us take care of our heart and of making it grow in love. It is an urgency all Christians need to live not only for their own salvation but as a precious witness to show forth in a world that puts the individual and material well-being over everything else. Our world needs to see the Gospel witness of Jesus' disciples in order to fight against the power of evil and violence.
Prayer is the heart of the life of the Community of Sant'Egidio and is its absolute priority. At the end of the day, every the Community of Sant'Egidio, large or small, gathers around the Lord to listen to his Word. The Word of God and the prayer are, in fact, the very basis of the whole life of the Community. The disciples cannot do other than remain at the feet of Jesus, as did Mary of Bethany, to receive his love and learn his ways (Phil. 2:5).
So every evening, when the Community returns to the feet of the Lord, it repeats the words of the anonymous disciple: " Lord, teach us how to pray". Jesus, Master of prayer, continues to answer: "When you pray, say: Abba, Father". It is not a simple exhortation, it is much more. With these words Jesus lets the disciples participate in his own relationship with the Father. Therefore in prayer, the fact of being children of the Father who is in heaven, comes before the words we may say. So praying is above all a way of being! That is to say we are children who turn with faith to the Father, certain that they will be heard.
Jesus teaches us to call God "Our Father". And not simply "Father" or "My Father". Disciples, even when they pray on their own, are never isolated nor they are orphans; they are always members of the Lord's family.
In praying together, beside the mystery of being children of God, there is also the mystery of brotherhood, as the Father of the Church said: "You cannot have God as father without having the church as mother". When praying together, the Holy Spirit assembles the disciples in the upper room together with Mary, the Lord's mother, so that they may direct their gaze towards the Lord's face and learn from Him the secret of his Heart.
The Communities of Sant'Egidio all over the world gather in the various places of prayer and lay before the Lord the hopes and the sufferings of the tired, exhausted crowds of which the Gospel speaks ( Mat. 9: 3-7 ), In these ancient crowds we can see the huge masses of the modern cities, the millions of refugees who continue to flee their countries, the poor, relegated to the very fringe of life and all those who are waiting for someone to take care of them. Praying together includes the cry, the invocation, the aspiration, the desire for peace, the healing and salvation of the men and women of this world. Prayer is never in vain; it rises ceaselessly to the Lord so that anguish is turned into hope, tears into joy, despair into happiness, and solitude into communion. May the Kingdom of God come soon among people!
